Il disastro della ferrovia mai entrata in funzione è costato 30 milioni, e ormai è distrutta

It was supposed to be one of the most beautiful tourist attractions in the Aosta Valley, but instead it has become yet another example of a waste of public funds. The sad story of the Cogne train is so incredible and complex that it's difficult to fully recount in a video, but we'll try anyway, discussing the long history of this beautiful railway and exploring the numerous structures along the line, now completely abandoned. When engineer Gilardi of Milan began designing this railway in 1916, he faced significant difficulties in choosing the optimal route, as the valley's topography required complex and costly construction not easily feasible with the means of the time. Ultimately, the decision to cross the Drink pass with a long tunnel followed by a cableway to Aosta prevailed over other lower-altitude route options that envisioned shorter but more numerous tunnels, as well as the need for bridges and rack railway sections. Overcoming the Drink massif, however, meant digging a tunnel nearly 7 kilometers long, a titanic undertaking whose construction was a real challenge at the time due to the difficulty of drilling through highly fractured rock and frequent inflows of water that significantly complicated excavation operations. After six years of hard work, made even more difficult by the outbreak of World War I, which deprived construction sites of manpower and explosives, the tunnel was completed and inaugurated with great fanfare on October 22, 1922, with the passage of the first animal-drawn train. After the closure of the Cogne mine in 1979, a proposal was made to transform it into an interurban tramway for tourist use, extending the line to Plan Praz, thus creating an interchange point with the Aosta-Pila cable car, useful both for the winter connection between the Pila and Cogne areas and for the connection between Cogne and Aosta. This was certainly an interesting service, especially in the winter, as it would allow for comfortable travel between two major tourist destinations aboard an electric train equipped with ski racks, halving travel times by car, as the rail route was much shorter than the road and was also less exposed to the risk of interruptions due to snow or landslides. In 1984, the lengthy process began to modernize the line and adapt it to passenger service. A train of 10 16-passenger carriages was designed for the service, staffed by two battery-powered electric locomotives, plus a reserve and a diesel locomotive, the construction of which was entrusted to Firema. A shuttle service was planned, with one return journey every hour, with a travel time of 25 minutes and a capacity of 160 passengers per hour in each direction. The work continued for nearly 20 years, during which various difficulties and increasingly complex and costly technical issues arose, especially regarding the rolling stock and the need to rehabilitate the Drinc Tunnel. Unfortunately, these issues led to the project's definitive abandonment after spending 30 million euros. Credits for historical photos and drawings: The Cogne-Acque Fredde Mining Railway by Paolo and Cecilio Giorcelli Once upon a time there was the Cogne-Acque Fredde Railway by Claudio Castiglion https://www.loststructures.net/ Follow us on IG:   / channel   or on FB:   / loststructures     / 270073201116625   and also on Telegram: https://t.me/LostStructures You can help us too by supporting the LS channel with PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/KY... Music: Evan King - Guardians [CC-BY royalty-free music] Flying Hills - Birds [CC-BY royalty free music] United We Stand by Savfk [CC-BY royalty free music] What Happens When We Die by Savfk [CC-BY royalty free music] #abandoned #railway #rails #cablecar #italian #miniera #mine #storia #mountains #alps #valledaosta #savfk